Czech culture alive and well in Canada

A popular folklore tradition known as 'Hody' takes place around this time
in October in many rural areas of the Czech Republic. It's a festival that
marks the end of the harvest. People dawn traditional costumes while
singing and dancing well into the early hours of the morning. As Martin
Hrobsky reports, this festival is not only popular in the Czech Republic.

No I am not in a village in Moravia, nor am I in a small town in Bohemia. I
am in Toronto, Canada at the Moravsko - Slavacke Hody. The annual event
includes a number of dancing groups of all ages, with musicians and
singers bringing the Czech-Slovak community from the surrounding area
together. I spoke to Roman Honig, one of the organizers of the festival:

"This is our annual fundraising event for the Morovan Dance Group -
the young kids group that most of us were in when we started dancing, but
now it is for our children and their children. This is our once a year
'hody' as we call it - our fall harvest and we also have a band from
Europe."

How important do you think it is to keep-on the traditions of your parents
and of Czech culture being in Canada?

"Well I think it's very important. I don't think you should push your
culture on other people but to keep it within yourself and your children
is a very good hand-down of what it was like before."

You mentioned a band from Europe, could tell me a little about them.

"Lunzhotcanka is from a small town where hody were and still are
famous and they perform every year. We luckily got connected with them
last year because they were on an American tour. It's a wonderful brass
style band, 16 pieces and three singers. We have been fortunate that we've
been getting them and it's really wonderful because we don't have any real
good Czech polka bands here in Toronto."

Many of the dancers at these festivals have been taking part in these
events for a long time. I caught up with one of the dancers, Mary Bilick,
and asked her how long she has been performing:

"I started in the group when I was eight. My folks are of Czech
background and they were in groups when they were younger and they wanted
to continue the tradition on with our family so by brother and sisters and
I started the group."

How important do you think it is to keep-up with your heritage?

"Its fantastic, I am 100 percent Canadian and born in Canada, but it
is a lot of fun. We meet so many people, we go to a number of different
places touring around the festivals. It is a lot of fun and we meet a lot
of interesting people."

Traditionally, people wear elaborate costumes during the celebration which
are often handed down from generation to generation. I asked Mary Honig,
who also happens to be an instructor for one of the dance groups, to
explain the costume that she wore.

"This costume I am wearing is a Slovak costume from Pestany and it
was made by my husbands grandmother in 1921, so this costume is 82 years
old. I treat it very carefully, its actually a simpler Pestany design.
Some of them have yellow embroidery on the sleeves and I have a headband
which is supposed to designate that I'm married but I am still trying to
be free-spirited. They are multicolored, but this one is a basic one with
just yellow and a basic white skirt, some of them are really elaborate and
colorful. This is a nice basic one and I really like it. I am treating it
very careful because it's really old and fragile and from Pestany."